Department of Mathematics

Mathematics is a rigorous and demanding intellectual pursuit that many people find captivating. On the practical side, studying mathematics also helps students develop exceptional analytical skills and problem-solving abilities – assets that are highly prized in a variety of professional fields, including business, law and medicine.

At Bridgewater, our programs enable students to build a broad knowledge base suitable for graduate studies or the pursuit of a challenging career.

Rebecca Metcalf currently serves as the chairperson of the Mathematics department at Bridgewater State University. In the past, she has been a liaison between her department and the College of Education and Allied Studies. She has been the facilitator of CONNECT Math and the Massachusetts higher education representative at PARCC Algebra II Assessment meetings. She is currently a contributing member of the Massachusetts Commonwealth Taskforce on Redesigning Developmental Math as well as an Executive Board Member of the Mathematics and Computer Science Collaborative (MACS) at Bridgewater.

Her professional work and scholarship falls under the broad umbrella of Undergraduate Mathematics Education. Specifically, she has focused on issues related to transfer of undergraduate mathematics courses and teacher preparation of elementary teachers.

Degrees

BS, State University College of New York College at Buffalo MA, PhD, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

Jacqueline Anderson

Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Science and Mathematics Center, Room 351

Tel:

508.531.2310

Email: Jacqueline.Anderson@bridgew.edu

Jacqueline Anderson's scholarship interest is in arithmetic dynamics, a blend of number theory and dynamical systems.

Paul Fairbanks has twenty years of service in the US Air Force including five years on a B-52 crew and six years at the US Air Force Academy. He has been at Bridgewater State University for twenty-six years.

BA, Bridgewater State College MS, Southern Illinois University DA, University of N. Colorado

Walter Joseph Gleason

Professor of Mathematics

Science and Mathematics Center, Room 445

Tel:

508.531.2236

Email: wgleason@bridgew.edu

Degrees

BS, Boston State College MA, Boston College

Laura K. Gross

Associate Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science

Science and Mathematics Center, Room 349

Tel:

508.531.2391

Email: laura.gross@bridgew.edu

Laura K. Gross joined the faculty at Bridgewater State University in 2009. Previously she worked as an associate professor at The University of Akron Ohio. She also served as visiting scholar at Boston University and Northwestern University and as visiting assistant professor at the University of Vermont. She has published articles in SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, Complexity, Chaos, Journal of Engineering Mathematics, Physica D, Studies in Applied Mathematics, Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, and Interfaces and Free Boundaries.

At Bridgewater Dr. Gross has taught a variety of precalculus and calculus courses, as well as upper-level requirements and electives in the mathematics major, including a writing designated course. She has also taught a computer science course on programming and computer algebra and an interdisciplinary Honors colloquium Honors in Action.

Ward Heilman started his academic career as a Religion and Philosophy major. After dropping out of college a few times he finally finished an undergraduate degree in Psychology at the State University of New York at New Paltz. Extensive experience driving trucks and taxis, unloading railroad cars and working in warehouses led back to a second undergraduate degree; this time in Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science. He worked a few short stints at IBM and then obtained a Master's degree in Mathematics from Pennsylvania State University. Eventually he earned a PhD in Mathematics, with a specialization in Combinatorics, from Northeastern University. He has enjoyed teaching at Bridgewater since 1996.

Professor Heilman delights in teaching courses in Logic, Combinatorics, Graph Theory, Abstract Algebra, Cryptology and Formal Language Theory. He encourages students to engage in undergraduate research and has mentored a Shea Scholar, many honors theses and several Adrian Tinsley Summer Research projects.

Dr. Heilman's original interests were in Mathematical Logic and Group Theory. He later became enchanted by Graph Theory and Combinatorics. Most recently he has become fascinated with Cryptology, in particular public key encryption systems and elliptic curve cryptography.

Degrees

BA, BS, State University of New York at New Paltz MA, Pennsylvania State University PhD, Northeastern University

Annela Kelly

Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Science and Mathematics Center, Room 458

Tel:

508.531.2714

Email: annela.kelly@bridgew.edu

Annela Kelly joined the Bridgewater State University faculty in 2011. She previously worked at Roger Williams University for five years and at University of Louisiana at Monroe for nine years where she was promoted to associate professor.

Dr. Kelly enjoys teaching and has taught a wide variety of mathematics classes ranging from Abstract Algebra and Real Analysis to Liberal Arts Mathematics classes. She enjoys working with students on projects in her mathematics classes and her students present regularly at the mid-year undergraduate research symposium. Currently, she is teaching Calculus classes.

Dr. Kelly has published papers in combinatorial game theory and abstract harmonic analysis. She is interested in student learning and has given several presentations in the field. The purpose of her scholarship is to work on a variety of areas (number theory, cryptology, mathematics of games) that are serving our students by providing opportunities for undergraduate research. Research articles she has published include:"Analysis of One-pile Misere Nim for Two Alliances," Rocky Mountain Journal of Mathematics, Vol. 41, No. 6, 2011"One-pile Misere Nim for Three or More Players," IJMMS, No. 40796, 2006"Jensen's Inequality for Vector-valued Functions on a Compact Abelian Group" (with B.Kelly), IJMMS, vol. 2003, issue 9, pp 527-532"Decomposition and Quasi-invarianceof Weakly Analytic Vector-valued Measures," PanAmerican Math Journal 11 (2001), no. 3, pp 81-88"Weakly Analytic Vector-valued Measures" (with N. Asmar and S. Montgomery-Smith), Hokkaido Mathematical Journal vol. 27 (1998), no. 2, pp 457-473In addition she has coauthored two textbooks, College Algebra and Liberal Arts Mathematics. At Bridgewater she has organized student team competitions and this semester she oversees departmental honors program as the chair.

Shannon Lockard has been teaching at Bridgewater since Fall 2007. She believes that working with students and teaching them mathematics is the best part of her job. In addition to teaching, she has also worked with a number of students on undergraduate research. She has taught a wide range of classes while at Bridgewater. She teaches calculus and linear algebra often and has taught many upper level courses as well, including Combinatorics, Graph Theory, and Number Theory. Away from Bridgewater, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two sons.

Dr. Lockard does research in the area of enumerative combinatorics. Currently she is interested in studying restricted paritition functions and related sequences. In addition to her mathematical research, she also engages in the scholarship of teaching and learning as a way of informing her teaching.

Degrees

BS, Eastern Kentucky University MS, Clemson University PhD, Clemson University

Joseph Martin

Instructor of Mathematics

Science and Mathematics Center, Room 355

Tel:

508.531.6683

Email: jmartin@bridgew.edu

Joseph Martin is the Chairman of both the Taunton School Committee and the Taunton Municipal Light Plant Commission. He is a former assistant superintendent with thirty-six years of service. He also sits on the board of directors for the Taunton Nursing Home. From the fall of 1980 through the spring of 2013, he served as a part-time faculty member at Bridgewater State University. He is currently serving as a temporary full-time faculty member. Over the span of thirty-four years, Mr. Martin has taught all undergraduate courses.

Degrees

BA, Bridgewater State CollegeMAT, Bridgewater State CollegeCAGS, Bridgewater State College

Vignon Oussa

Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Science and Mathematics Center, Room 441

Tel:

508.531.1829

Email: vignon.oussa@bridgew.edu

Vignon Oussa's first interest is teaching mathematics. He has taught several courses including remedial courses, most upper level courses and several other classes in between. Dr. Oussa is currently involved with the Math Club and is the coordinator of internship and job opportunities for math majors at Bridgewater State University. He has also been active in research on the Representation Theory of Lie Groups and Wavelets Analysis on non commutative groups.

Kevin Rion's teaching interests include probability theory and mathematical aspects of statistics, as well as analysis. His scholarship interests are in Probability Theory, Mathematical Statistics, and Functional Analysis.

Degrees

BA, University of Cincinnati MA, PhD, Bowling Green State University

Polina Sabinin

Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Science and Mathematics Center, Room 353

Tel:

508.531.2204

Email: polina.sabinin@Bridgew.edu

Polina Sabinin joined Bridgewater State University in 2011. She is the faculty coordinator of Games Teachers Play (an outreach program for P-12 teachers through the Center for Advancement of STEM Education) and Math Kangaroo (an international mathematics competition for students in grades 1-12).

Prior to coming to Bridgewater, Polina was the Associate Director of the Center for Mathematics Achievement at Lesley University, Associate Consultant for Teachers21, and developmental editor for Pearson Addison-Wesley. Currently she coauthors educational games for FoxMind Games, Canada. Her most recent game publication is Smart Cookies with Michel and Robert Lyons. Smart Cookies introduces children and adults to logic.

In the last ten years, Dr. Sabinin was the founding board member, president, newsletter chair, and conference chair for the Massachusetts Mathematics Association of Teacher Educators (MassMATE). She was also the Newsletter Chair for the Association of Teachers of Mathematics in Massachusetts.

Polina Sabinin teaches Mathematics for Elementary Teachers I (MATH 112), Mathematics for Elementary Teachers II (MATH 113), Mathematics for Elementary Teachers III (MATH 114), and Second Year Seminars about Games in Mathematics.

Her scholarship interests are in students' deductive reasoning as well as mathematics education through games and puzzles.

Philip Scalisi is the former chair and graduate school coordinator in the Mathematics department. He is a member of the MAA, HOMSIGM, NCTM, and Pi Mu Epsilon. Professor Scalisi frequently participates in the MAA Math Study Tours. He often lectures in the History of Mathematics.

Professor Scalisi teaches both graduate and undergraduate level History of Mathematics and all Analysis courses. His scholarship interests are in history of mathematics and mineralogical crystallography.

Degrees

BS, MS, Northeastern University

Irina Seceleanu

Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Science and Mathematics Center, Room 439

Tel:

508.531.2336

Email: irina.seceleanu@bridgew.edu

Dr. Irina Seceleanu has enjoyed teaching at Bridgewater State University since 2010. She regularly teaches both the introductory and upper level courses Precalculus, Calculus I and II, Linear Algebra and Introduction to Analysis.

Dr. Seceleanu is an analyst and her primary research interests lie in the field of operator theory, functional analysis and linear dynamics. Her research is in the area of hypercyclicity, which is the study of linear operators that possess a dense orbit.Publications:K.Chan, I.Seceleanu, Cyclicity of vectors with orbital limit points for backward shifts, to appear in the Journal of Integral Equations and Operator Theory.K.Chan, I.Seceleanu, Hypercyclicity of shifts as a zero-one law of orbital limit points, Journal of Operator Theory, 67(1), 257-277 (2012).K.Chan, I.Seceleanu, Orbital limit points and hypercyclicity of operators on analytic function spaces, Mathematical Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 110A(1), 99-109 (2010).

Dr. Seceleanu also emphasizes student mentoring and has worked with students on a variety of undergraduate research projects sponsored by the Adrian Tinsley Program at Bridgewater. She has greatly enjoyed collaborating with her research students to create mathematical models for the retreat of glaciers in a changing climate and the effects of plaque aggregation on the neuronal network.

Degrees

BS, University of Trier BS, Academy of Economic Studies MA, PhD, Bowling Green State University

Uma Shama has been teaching in the department of Mathematics and Computer Science since 1987 at Bridgewater State University. She mainly teaches mathematics courses from freshman to graduate level but has also taught directed study and independent research courses to undergraduate and graduate computer science students. Professor Shama has taught freshman seminar and first year seminar courses. Through GeoGraphics Laboratory, she has offered training workshops to practitioners in using geographic information system and spatial analysis in improving access to transportation. Bridgewater State University has reviatlized the honors program and has actively introduced undergraduate research. To connect the Core Curriculum with each major, students are required to complete one writing intensive course in their major. In response to these changes, Dr. Shama has regularly taught a course in Applied Mathematics as writing intensive in the major. She has also taught graduate level research based writing intensive courses. When students show interest to learn more, she has always accommodated their needs by offering directed and independent study courses above and beyond her regular load.

ADVISING: Dr. Shama advises more than forty undergraduate and graduate students who major in mathematics and computer science. She has advised new students during freshman and transfer student orientation regularly. She also mentors students in their career paths as well as planning for advance degree programs.

STUDENT THESES AND PROJECTS: In the last seven years, she has directed two undergraduate honors theses, four undergraduate Adrian Tinsley Summer Projects and six masters projects in both mathematics and computer science.

COURSE DEVELOPMENT: Dr. Shama has been actively developing seminar courses, new courses to fill the needs in both mathematics and computer science programs at both undergraduate and graduate level. She worked with colleagues in modifying Calculus courses for mathematics majors and mathematics courses for elementary education majors. She participated in the CONNECT workshop in aligning courses for transferring among University of Massachusetts, community colleges, and Bridgewater State University. She also worked on creating a one-credit problem solving course as part of the E and T sections for some of the basic mathematics courses in the department. As part of the STREAMS course development, Dr. Shama developed Problem Solving courses that have become corequisite with a Calculus I course. Elements of Calculus courses were required for management science majors until a separate one semester applied calculus was introduced. She has worked on modifying the Elements of Calculus courses as the students in these courses are mainly science majors.

HONORS AND AWARDS: In the last seven years, Dr. Shama received four awards. In 2007, she received the Presidential Award for Distinguished Teaching, one of the highest recognitions for teaching at Bridgewater State University. In 2007, she also received Honors Outstanding Faculty Award that was initially recommended by students of Bridgewater State University. In 2009, she received the Martha D. Jones Outstanding Dedication to Students Award from the Bridgewater State University Alumni Association. In 2010, she received Bridgewater State Lifetime Faculty Research Award, the highest award that one can receive at Bridgewater. Since 2008, she was honored to serve as the University Marshal. Dr. Shama feels truly blessed to have been working at Bridgewater State University for the last twenty-six years and to have her work recognized with various awards.

COMMITTEE WORK: Dr. Shama has served in several committees within the department as well as college-wide. She served as treasurer of an international organization, Natural Philosophy Alliance. College-wide she has served on Honorary Degree Advisory Committee, Asian Studies Program, Campus Climate Action Group, Honors Program, Undergraduate Research Program, Executive Committee of MSCA, Bridgewater Chapter and HERS Bridgewater Chapter. In the mathematics department, Dr. Shama has served on graduate committee, undergraduate curriculum committee and search committee. She also serves as course coordinator of several courses on a regular basis.

GRANTS: In the last seven years during review period 2006-2013, Dr. Shama has been involved in eleven externally funded grants and one internally funded grant. She has been able to hire and train many undergraduate and graduate students on these externally funded projects. This has helped students who have worked in the GeoGraphics Laboratory to find full-time employment when they graduate from Bridgewater State University. She has actively served on the Project Compass grant. This work was especially fulfilling to her as it addressed the issues about improving student success at Bridgewater for all our students, in particular for underserved students.

PUBLICATIONS: In the last seven years, Dr. Shama co-authored ten publications and ten technical reports as part of externally funded grants. Her research fields include Geographic Informations systems, mobility management technology research in transportation, intelligent transportation systems, and electrodynamics.

PRESENTATIONS: Dr. Shama has been invited to present her research work at national and international conferences every year. She has also regularly presented project results to the funding agencies.

The department offers a BS degree in Mathematics, a minor in the same subject, and an interdisciplinary minor in actuarial science. We also offer a graduate MA in Teaching-Math program and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study (CAGS) program. Many of our students participate in honors activities, colloquia and symposia, and we maintain an ongoing collaborative (MACS) with local schools and businesses. Our academic programs are continuously evolving to reflect the constantly changing needs and goals of business, industry and education in this field.

Math majors enjoy an interesting range of career options including applied mathematics, teaching, research, government analysis and cryptography, statistics, operations research and actuarial science.